Business Development Director – Supply Chain Center of Excellence (CoE)

Location: Field / Remote

Travel: Approximately 50% (Client sites & Norway office)

About Cognite

Cognite is a global industrial Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company enabling the full-scale digital transformation of heavy-asset industries. Our core software product, Cognite Data Fusion (CDF), powers companies with contextualized OT/IT data to develop and scale solutions that increase safety, sustainability, and operational efficiency while driving revenue.

Role Overview

As a Business Development Director within our Supply Chain Center of Excellence (CoE), you will drive Cognite’s growth by winning new Supply Chain business within accounts headquartered in your territory. Operating as a subject matter expert, you will leverage deep domain insights to help customers transform their supply chain value chain using Cognite Applications and the Cognite Data Fusion Platform.

Key Responsibilities

Territory & CoE Strategy: Develop and execute a targeted territory strategy to accelerate bookings growth and secure high-impact supply chain clients.

Pipeline Generation: Actively prospect and leverage your personal network to generate pipeline, providing compelling "commercial insights" on optimizing the supply chain value chain.

Complex Sales Execution: Lead extended territory teams (including pre-sales and technical experts) through complex enterprise sales cycles to exceed bookings targets.

Value-Based Selling: Quantify ROI and present strong business cases to help enterprise executives justify software investments.

Partner-savvy: work with partners to qualify and progress their pipeline, and drive joint engagements on qualified opportunities.

Deal Negotiation: Support the Account / Engagement Leader in negotiating favorable pricing and commercial terms with C-level executives by demonstrating the long-term strategic value of Cognite’s solutions.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with internal Product Management and Marketing teams to feed real-market supply chain insights back into product strategy.

Sales Hygiene & Forecasting: Support the Account Leaders and their First Line Managers in accurately forecasting monthly/quarterly bookings and maintaining up-to-date account records in Salesforce.com.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities (KSAs) & Competencies

Core Competencies:

Domain & Industry Expertise: Deep domain expertise in complex Supply Chain operations for Energy, Manufacturing or Power Utilities verticals. Understanding of Production operations and industry x.0 initiatives is also required.

Strategic Value Selling: Ability to sell value and build quantified ROI frameworks for prospective buyers.

Informal Leadership, Influence & Autonomy: High degree of self-motivation, time management, and ability to informally lead and effectively influence cross-functional deal teams.

Executive Communication: Stellar presentation, written, and verbal communication skills tailored for C-suite engagement.

Knowledge & Technical Requirements:

Enterprise Software/SaaS: Proven mastery of selling complex analytics or data platforms (e.g., AI, Big Data, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Machine Learning).

Data Ecosystems: Familiarity with modern data architectures and tools, such as Big Data frameworks (Hadoop, Spark, Hive, BigQuery), Data Warehouses, and Machine Learning.

Role Qualifications

Industry Experience: 10+ years of experience in the Manufacturing and broader industrial supply chain environment.

Sales Track Record: 7+ years of direct or in-support sales experience, selling enterprise software/SaaS (BI, Big Data, Advanced Analytics, or AI/ML) to C-level executives, Management and operations.

Proven Performance: Demonstrated history of consistently meeting or exceeding SaaS bookings goals in direct / partner / channel-based sales models

Environment Experience: Prior experience operating in high-growth startup environments (Series A, B, or C stage).

Education: Bachelor’s degree required.

What Makes Us Great & Perks

Culture & Values: High autonomy, a culture of speed and openness, social and diversity initiatives (Together@Cognite), and a commitment to innovation.

Compensation & Benefits: Competitive base + variable compensation, 401(k) employer matching, fully covered health/dental/vision/disability premiums, and learning stipends.

Workplace Flexibility: Unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, and catered company lunches.